4. 36 Lispenard Street

The next morning, Stuart the hospitable sailor accompanied him to David Ruggles’ house located in what is the neighborhood of Tribeca today. Ruggles was a free black man and an officer on the Underground Railroad, and he had sent for Douglass, inviting him to stay at his place for the next few days at the corner of Church and Lispenard Streets. While Douglass hid out here, he sent for his sweetheart Anna, who had done so much already to help him escape by providing him with his sailor disguise and selling one of her feather beds for travel funds. In fact, she had likely met him on one of the docks at Fell’s Point. When she heard of his successful escape, she came from Baltimore immediately to join him. They were married here at Ruggles’ house on Sept 15, 1838.